Children living in high poverty neighborhoods—a disproportionate number of whom are children of color—are more likely to die from child abuse.

My patients in my clinic in South Los Angeles are children from high poverty areas. However, regardless of where they practice, pediatricians have a critical role in the recognition and prevention of child abuse.

California’s county and local mental health agencies have failed to spend $2.5 billion in taxpayer money that is intended to help Californians with mental illness, according to a new state auditor’s report.

Instead, the agencies have sat on the money, accumulating $80 million in interest as of fiscal year 2015-16, according to the report, released Tuesday.

I was in a terrible car accident shortly after my 18th birthday. I had three surgeries that were supposed to help relieve my pain. They didn’t. OxyContin, an opioid pain-relief medication, was my best friend until it was my only friend.

Immigrants who are undocumented or have family members in the country illegally have become more wary about seeking medical help, both at clinics and hospitals and also through government programs such as Medi-Cal or the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC).

For children in the Salinas Valley with diabetes, seeing a specialist can involve long wait times or many miles in the car. But beginning this week, UCSF Medical Center and Salinas Memorial Healthcare System will give these children another option.